"Great work, Iris!" Ash said, shifting up a little so Iris could sit next to him. "That was great!"

"Yeah, I still feel a bit bad about coming second but I think I really made Dawn work for that win," Iris agreed, smiling a little. "And that trick her Riolu has now is interesting… I wonder if Excadrill can learn it?"

"Maybe," Ash shrugged. "And I think it's great you didn't use Dragonite."

"I thought about it," Iris admitted. "But it's important that I don't lean on a Pokémon, especially one I only just caught and I haven't really trained with."

"I think Ash means that you didn't interrupt Dragonite while he's having his first meeting with the Ryuunited Kingdom," N said. "Last we heard they were watching a fireworks display in his honour."

Iris brightened. "Oh, that sounds nice… wait, your mom lets any of your Pokémon use fireworks?"

"No, the Pokémon are doing the fireworks," Ash clarified. "Rayquaza's great at them, and Silver's an honorary something or other so he was doing a thing with Aeroblast I think."

"So, basically the same thing but you can't even confiscate them," Pikachu said.

Then Iris frowned. "Hey, shouldn't the battle have started by now? I was down there for a while."

"I don't think Alder's much of a short-order cook," Cilan shrugged.

"When Alder heard that this was an exhibition battle," Cynthia began, "I wonder if he realized the point was not that you make an exhibition of yourself."

Out on the battle field, Alder folded his arms and glared at his Pokémon.

"One of you is going to have to go back into your Pokéball, you know," he said. "Dawn's earned this battle and it's supposed to be a one-on-one, not a two-on-two and certainly not a two-on-one."

Escavalier waved their right lance, chattering away, and Alder smiled in a sort of harried way. "Are you sure? That's not really what I was expecting…"

"You can understand your Pokémon?" Dawn asked. "That's neat. I still need a bit of help."

"No, I can't, actually," Alder replied. "But, I was expecting them to listen."

Bouffalant snorted, shaking Escavalier on his back slightly, and Alder groaned.

"Come on, guys, what's up?"

Escavalier pointed both lances up.

"Yes, I get that…"

While he'd been talking, Dawn had got out her Pokétch and fiddled with one of the modes. "Um… there we go."

Azelf appeared next to her. "Hi! Is something wrong?"

"I was wondering if you could help translate," Dawn explained. "I hope this is isn't a bad time."

"Nah, Ux is lecturing Regigigas about erosion," Azelf shrugged, both tails flicking out to the side. "It'll take a while for Ux to run out of things to say, and then repeat it a few times until Regigigas says yes-I'm-listening. This happens every so often."

The Psychic-type smiled, then concentrated. "And… there we go!"

"Oh, thanks," Alder replied, most of his attention on listening to Escavalier and Bouffalant. "...I'm not sure this translation is working right. What do you mean, you count as one Pokémon?"

Escavalier's lances waved around madly as the Bug-type spoke.

"Precedent? Calyrex doesn't count as precedent!"

"I can't understand them," Dawn said, sotto voce. "That's deliberate, right?"

"Right!" Azelf agreed, with a thumbs-up. "You can't win through superior determination and willpower if you're relying on hearing what the other side's planning!"

Alder leaned in closer. "What do you mean, you borrowed a local guide? What local guide? And who on earth could be a local guide to help you find some Reins of Unity?"

"Am I late to the final?" Articuno asked, drifting down overhead before stopping in mid-air and just sort of dropping onto the back of Ash's seat, where she perched for a moment like a very large Chatot before realizing that actually she was in the way this way and dropping into a spare seat instead.

"Well, the final is over, but Dawn and Alder haven't started their battle yet," Ash replied. "How was your holiday?"

"Dreadfully cold, it rained half the time and the only food that wasn't bland was curry," Articuno said, wistfully. "It was great. I haven't had such a good grumble in ages…"

"Hey, um, excuse me, mister?" a boy asked, waving his hand to get Ash's attention as they walked back to Cynthia's villa. "Do you know where the Vertress Conference is being held?"

The Riolu next to him did a double-take, then put her head in her hands with a sigh.

"Well, I guess it's in Vertress City," Ash replied. "That's what I heard, anyway… is that right, Arc?"

"It is still right," Arc agreed. "Like it was the last time you checked."

"If you wanted to pick someone out of a crowd who wasn't a great choice for directions…" Pikachu snickered.

"Why are you even asking, anyway?" Riolu asked. "Admittedly it's better than when you were trying to find plane tickets to Ecruteak for the League, but-"

"Because we're ready for the League!" the boy answered. "My name's Cameron, and we're going to win the Vertress Conference! I just need to know where to go to get there."

"That's not the only thing," Riolu said.

"Have you tried checking a map?" Iris asked. "I haven't been to Vertress before myself, but it's a city, so it's not like it's a secret location or whatever."

"Maybe it could be," Axew suggested. "That'd be fun! To challenge the Pokémon League you need to go through a gauntlet of challenges, not just the badge thing, but solving puzzles! Going through caves! Really prove you're ready!"

"I think that'd be hard to enforce," Dawn replied, critically. "If only because you usually have spectators at the Pokémon League. But normally the badge challenge is a pretty good filter."

"I'm trying to tell you-" Riolu began again, but Cameron interrupted her.

"Are any of you doing the Vertress Conference?" he asked. "Because I'll show you we're ready by beating you at the Pokémon World Tour Junior Cup!"

"That's just finished," Cynthia said, sounding highly amused. "We were walking home from it."

"Oh, huh," Cameron sighed, then brightened. "Well, in that case, we'll beat you all in the Pokémon League!"

Iris held up her hand. "I'm not competing."

"Gym Leader," Cilan contributed.

"Also a Gym Leader, and from Sinnoh," Dawn told him. "And a Coordinator."

"And I'm the Sinnoh Grand Champion," Cynthia finished.

"Wow," Cameron breathed. "But… wait, I thought Alder was the Grand Champion. Is Sinnoh different than the rest of Unova?"

"Sinnoh is not in Unova," Zygarde said. "Or, more correctly, given the nature of geospatial reality, they are both in different directions from Kalos."

"Kalos is the centre of the universe?" Pikachu asked. "I thought it was Sinnoh."

"Of course Kalos is the centre of the universe," Zygarde replied. "Assuming you use a coordinate system designed in Kalos."

"Oh, I get it!" Cameron realized, then pointed to Ash. "So you must be the one who is doing the Vertress Conference, right? Have you already got all seven badges you need?"

Riolu covered her cheeks with her paws.

"I'm sorry about him," she mumbled through them. "He's got a good heart, really… not many trainers would agree to a joint League run with one of their Pokémon."

"I never thought of that!" Ash said. "So you mean you're not just one of Cameron's team, but you and Cameron are the joint leaders of a team? That's neat, I usually just turn into an Absol and compete that way."

"And because I think Ash missed it," Iris added. "You need eight Gym Badges to enter the Vertress Conference, like you do with other Pokémon Leagues."

"Oh, right," Cameron said, then looked down at Riolu. "How many do we still need?"

"Sometimes I think you accidentally used an Amnesia TM on yourself," Riolu replied, shaking her head. "One. And I was already saying we should do Humilau because it's on the way to Vertress."

"Oh." Cameron looked faintly embarrassed. "You already told me this, right?"

"Yep," Riolu confirmed. "Come on, let's go get that eighth badge."

The friends watched Cameron leave.

"...why do I have this faint suspicion that that kid has a ridiculously powerful Pokémon?" Iris asked.

After a nice, relaxing break, it was time for Dawn to part ways with the rest of the friends, and nearly time for Ash to start heading for Undella City.

"We could just fly there, but I think we should take the slower route," Ash said. "That way, we get to swing by the Village of Dragons, right?"

"How do you know where that is?" Iris asked. "It's not exactly a secret, but we try not to publicize it too much."

Arc's ring pulsed.

"I did not ascertain whether the map information I was provided was public or private," they apologized.

"No, really I should have realized," Iris said, shaking her head. "But I've got to admit, it'd be nice to see home and introduce my new team to the Elders."

"I think I could enjoy a visit," Zacian said, smirking slightly.

Then there was a knock at the window.

"Excuse me?" a melodious voice asked. "Is Cynthia in?"

"Sorry, you just missed her again," Dawn said. "She'll be back this evening, I think… that's what she said, anyway. I know I'm supposed to lock up if we're all leaving before about six."

"Well, I think you'll probably do," the speaker admitted, and cancelled her invisibility to reveal it was Meloetta. "Do you think you could help out? There's a terrible problem going on."

"Sure!" Ash replied. "What kind of terrible problem?"

He shrugged. "That doesn't make much difference over whether I'll help, but I could use a hint so I know what kind of help to get!"

"It's a Legendary Pokémon problem," Meloetta answered, glancing back over her shoulder nervously. "I've been staying nearby, and when everything went wrong-"

"Then we shall lend our aid!" Zacian declared, drawing her sword.

Then she looked at the windowed doors, judging their width, and sheathed it again.

"Ahem. We shall lend our aid once we're outside."

"Yeah, let's go!" Ash agreed. "Lead the way, Meloetta!"

"So, why are you here, actually?" Ash asked. "We last saw you in Virbank."

"I know," Meloetta agreed. "That's why I was surprised to hear Cynthia lived around here, and more surprised to see you were here."

They came to a fence, and Ash hopped over.

"Wow," Meloetta blinked, then switched to Pirouette Form with a brief song and jumped over as well. "Anyway, it's just through here – they showed up and we can't get rid of them!"

"That's another villa," Pikachu noticed. "Who showed up?"

There was a crash and one of the villa windows blew out, revealing the upper half of a what looked like a Therian Thundurus.

"Wow," he hiccuped. "This stuff is great!"

"Well, that's definitely a Legendary problem," Pikachu said.

"What happened?" Ash asked, as he broke into a jog.

"The Forces of Nature turned up!" Meloetta explained. "Well, not Enamorus, but the rest of them. And they said they'd gone to Hisui on holiday, and then they came back with some sake, and started drinking it, and-"

"Hisui?" Pikachu interrupted. "You're sure they didn't mean Sinnoh?"

"They definitely said Hisui," Meloetta told them.

"Oh, I get it!" Dawn's Pichu realized. "The sake must have aged on its journey forwards in time. That happens sometimes, I assume."

"So there's three drunk Pokémon in the house," N summarized, cantering alongside. "I'm pretty sure they're violating laws about being drunk and disorderly, plus breaking and entering depending on whether they asked – did they ask?"

"I don't think they got invited in," Meloetta admitted.

"Hey!" Ash called, hands cupped around his mouth. "Tornadus, Thundurus, Landorus, you guys need to stop making such a mess!"

"And if we don't want to?" Landorus demanded, sounding quite belligerent.

"Then I guess we'll have to stop you!" Ash replied. "Pikachu, you're up! They're all Flying type!"

"All right, let's do this!" Pikachu said, charging up. "Pichu, Emolga, mind giving me a boost? This should be fun!"

"Your trainer does realize we're not just Flying type, right?" Thundurus asked, waving around a bowl of liquid. "I'm Lightning type! Landorus is Ground type!"

"It's Electric type," Tornadus corrected, wings flared and sounding just as sloshed. "Why are we talking about electricity again?"

"Ahem," Pikachu cleared his throat. "Your attention please."

There was a very loud bang.

"...sorry about all the damage Pikachu's attack did," Ash said, a few minutes later. "We thought it'd be better to stop them doing damage as soon as possible."

"I think you were correct," Giovanni replied, reluctantly, looking at the holes. "It's amazing how much damage three drunk Legendary Pokémon can do, even if they're not trying."

"And I didn't know you had a villa here!" Ash added. "If I'd known I'd have come around and said hi! Oh, and you should really get a Pokémon that's better at battling Flying types, if you get a chance… unless Meloetta's your Pokémon now?"

"She is not," Giovanni answered. "And… I'm a private person. Meloetta has been staying here but honestly that's all I can handle some days."

"I get it!" Ash said. "Professor Oak has days like that, I think. Or he says he does, usually after I've told him something cool I found out."

He shrugged. "Well, sorry again about the damage… I think I've got a Pokémon or two who could help out? Dragonite's been doing a correspondence course on-"

"No, thank you," Giovanni interrupted. "I will be fine by myself."

He watched the friends leave, first through the hole where a window had been and then on the security cameras.

Once they'd finally vanished, he rubbed his temples.

"I really thought that going to the other end of Unova from where they'd last seen him, with a Legendary Pokémon, would have made it so this sort of thing didn't happen," he said.

Which was about when Enamorus came out of the airing cupboard and embraced him.

"You're my best friend," she said, as Meloetta tried somewhat ineffectually to get her attention. "It might be the alcomohols talking but I like what they say!"

AN:

He can't escape.

Well, he can, but not permanently.

The following is a chapter I forgot to post in the right slot, so I'm inserting it where it should be this way rather than delete and re-add over thirty chapters.

The Flower Garden Trial

Dawn scratched Nickit under the chin. "You were going to have to cope with it sooner or later."

"I know," Nickit grumbled, glancing back at a borrowed Steel Wing which wasn't quite the right shape. "And you're right, I should get this healed before I need to steal a flying move in an actual battle. It's still annoying."

"I think you were very noble," Dawn told the Fox Pokémon. "Do you rob from the rich to give to the poor?"

"Assuming that I qualify as poor," Nickit replied. "Which I think I do up until I've stolen enough."

Dawn smiled. "You like Watmel juice, right? I'll go and get a glass for myself and you can steal it."

"That would be nice," Nickit admitted.

Several miles out of Undella Town, meanwhile, Ash and the others were sitting down to lunch.

"Today's dish is based on orzo," Dragonite informed them. "It's sort of like if pasta was trying to impersonate rice, or possibly the other way around, and it's a mozzarella orzo risotto."

"Did you start speaking in a different language at the end there?" Iris checked. "Those words all sounded quite similar."

"I think they're one of those languages mostly known by food people," Emolga supplied, from her spot on Iris' hair. "It's a bit odd because it's being translated through Dragonite, obviously, but I think I got the words about right."

"I agree!" Cilan nodded. "They're all fine culinary words, though I'd like to ask if you included chorizo."

"Of course I did," Dragonite confirmed.

"Oh, dear," someone commented, in the sort of voice when you want to be heard. "That Emolga's not got a good look."

"What did you just say?" Iris replied hotly, turning around, and saw three girls coming along the path.

"I said that that Emolga's terribly unattractive," the middle girl replied. "Ugly and pathetic. Though I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, with a trainer like you."

"Wow," Pikachu winced. "So this is why sometimes trainers fight as soon as their eyes meet."

"Emolga isn't ugly or pathetic," Iris said, firmly. "She knows Attract, so she's attractive by definition, but on top of that I spent some of the last few weeks learning from Dawn how to keep my Pokémon in Contest shape, and Emolga and Archeops enjoyed it the most! So I'm going to keep it up!"

"Oh, please," another girl said, rolling her eyes. "Don't act like you don't know Moira's much more elegant than you. In fact, all of us are – I'm Mona, she's Cher, and we've got the most elegant Pokémon in the world!"

Ash was frowning. "What does the word elegant mean?"

Moira laughed. "I should have known that you'd all have dreadful looking Pokémon. That Snivy, I mean, please."

"No, that's not what I mean," Ash said, as Snivy bristled. "I think you're wrong, but I want to make sure exactly what elegant means, this happened before because I tried to work out what the boonies were and that's how I found out Unova was all countryside."

The three girls exchanged baffled looks.

"Elegance is being graceful and stylish," Cher said, eventually.

Ash started scrolling through something on Arc.

"What are you doing now?" Cher frowned.

"Looking up graceful," Ash replied.

"You're never going to understand elegance that way," Moira sniffed. "Either you have it or you don't."

"And I've got it!" Snivy insisted. "Lunar Blessing, make-"

"You taught your Pokémon to talk?" Mona said. "Wow. That just spoils all the cuteness."

"I was going to show you true elegant Pokémon, but I don't think we'll bother," Moira decided. "Come on, girls, we've got better things to do."

"Are you all right?" Pikachu asked, as the girls left. "Iris, you've turned a funny colour."

"I think I'm about to learn Imperial Rage," Iris replied. "I know it's normally just called Outrage, but I'm that angry."

More than an hour later, Iris still hadn't cooled off.

"I just can't believe…" she grumbled. "Not elegant? Really… who do they think they are?"

"They think they are Moira, Mona and Cher of the Flower Garden Troupe," Arc said. "Part of a theatrical group which uses female Pokémon and humans only. They are based in a headquarters around thirty minutes' walk away."

Iris stopped mid-rant, and turned towards Ash.

"You didn't say that before," she accused.

"My apologies," Arc replied. "I will endeavour to use predictive text to answer your questions before you actually ask them."

"Well, then-"

"The headquarters is open to applicants at any time," Arc interrupted.

"So-" Iris tried again.

Arc overrode her again. "Only female trainers and Pokémon are allowed in."

"Then-"

"Three hundred and eighty four thousand, four hundred kilometres on average."

Iris waved her hands. "Wait, stop stop stop. What was that last one?"

"Were you not intending to ask how far away the moon is?" Arc inquired.

"No, and, um… please don't do that any more," Iris requested. "It was getting annoying really fast."

As Arc accepted the request, though, Iris was already frowning hard.

"So only female trainers and Pokémon are allowed in, huh?" she said. "Well, you know what that means we have to do?"

Cilan rubbed his chin, thinking.

"...have something dry for dinner?" he asked. "The orzo was a bit wet, so it'd be a good contrast."

"What?" Iris blinked. "No! We have to disguise you two as girls, and that way we can all get in and teach those trainers a lesson!"

She pointed at Cilan. "You'll need to swap that suit for a dress, and Ash… actually, Ash can just take the potion and use Illusion, right?"

"This is not what I meant," Iris said, a few minutes later.

"How does that look?" Ash asked, adjusting his Illusion slightly. "It's been a couple of weeks since last time I got a good look, and I wasn't paying all that much attention, so I'm not sure if I'm getting the fine distinctions right."

"I think you're going to need to get expert help," Pikachu replied. "And I don't qualify. Ibid?"

"On it," Ibid replied, teleporting away.

"...I actually meant for him to judge your Illusion," Pikachu admitted. "But that's probably going to work as well."

Ibid re-materialized a moment later, along with Lokoko and Absol both still wearing their café uniforms.

"I didn't know Lokoko had such – AAAAAAA" Absol yelped, taking several steps backwards, then shook her head. "Oh, right, it's you…"

Lokoko stifled a giggle. "I wondered why you wanted us," she said. "Ibid just asked if we were available."

She walked around Ash, examining his Illusion critically.

"You're not doing bad at being a female Absol," she said. "I think you could make improvements, but we don't need you to look exactly like Absol here. But I do have to ask why."

"It's all to show up some incredibly pushy girls!" Iris said. "This isn't how my plan started but it's how it's ended up, apparently."

"I actually don't think this is going to work," Ash admitted. "People know about Zorua and Zoroark in Unova, right? So they must have some way to tell male and female humans and Pokémon apart somehow, even if I can't think of how specifically they'd do it."

"I don't know, actually," Cilan frowned. "They might have some kind of way to tell, but any way I can think of like Attract would have false positives… maybe Rivalry? But that's about the only way I can think of."

"That might be it," Ash said. "So I don't think it'll work, Iris."

Pikachu raised his paw as Iris started to simmer. "I have a question," he said. "Arc, is any of what they do actually official Pokémon League type battles, where you can only use Pokémon you're registered to?"

"Bootstrapping answer," Arc reported. "Apparently not."

"Then I've got an idea," Pikachu replied. "Iris, you're going to be stuck with just Emolga and Archeops from your team, but why not bring along some of Ash's team? If they're okay with it, I mean…"

"That's a good idea," Ash agreed. "And, hey, Lokoko, couldn't you and Froslass and Zacian all imitate being trainers if you wanted? That gives some options."

Lokoko glanced at her girlfriend. "What do you think?"

"Well…" Absol replied, tilting her head slightly. "I'm mostly picking up Shenanigans if we go ahead, but it's a bit hard to pick that out from the background hum of Shenanigans around Ash."

Sandile hopped out of his Pokéball.

"Sorry, I was asleep," he said. "Now, where's that blonde pigtail wig, winged helmet, breastplate and big Galarian Ponyta I need for this one?"

"I wonder why they have that rule about girls only?" Cilan said. "It's quite an odd rule, if you think about it."

Ash shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "They might have a reason that makes sense to them, or maybe it's just to do with their brand and that place is for applicants…"

"Well, it's not really anything we need to worry about now," Cilan decided. "I think I've come up with what we should have for dinner, as well – how does a gratin sound?"

"It'd help if I knew what a gratin is," Pikachu said.

"It'd help Pikachu if he knew what a gratin was," Dwebble passed on.

"Oh, well-" Cilan began.

"I think it sounds like rrf, rrf, rrf," Ash decided. "Doesn't it?"

"That's grating," Cilan said. "A gratin is a meal covered by a crust of breadcrumbs, or melted cheese, or potatoes, or something like that! It's not entirely dry, but it's drier in concept than what we had for lunch, so it'd form a nice counterpoint."

"That sounds interesting," N admitted. "So it's sort of like a pie?"

"I've never understood what is and isn't a pie," Dewott muttered. "It always seems like everything's a pie, except when I confidently say something is, when it isn't."

At that point, the discussion was interrupted by Iris hurrying back into their clearing, along with just about all the female Pokémon accessible to the group.

"That didn't go as planned!" Latias said.

"It didn't?" Ash asked, worried. "What happened?"

"Well, some of it went to plan," Iris replied. "The bit about getting in worked fine, they didn't ask any questions, and then… it was weird, really."

"Perhaps we should resolve the highest priority first," Lokoko said. "Are we being followed?"

Absol frowned a little, considering.

"I don't think we are at the moment," she decided.

"That sounds worrying," N blinked. "You might have been being followed?"

"Not in a you-broke-the-rules way," Emolga reassured them. "I think. More in a we-want-to-give-you-a-job way."

"...what even happened?" Dragonite asked. "And should some of us have come along in our Pokéballs?"

"Thanks, but I think if anything that might have just had the risk of making it even more complicated," Emolga said. "So, um, weirdly enough they didn't recognize any of us that they'd already met, because of our disguises."

Dragonite looked at his teammate.

"Your only disguise was a bit of blusher," he said. "Which isn't there any more."

"Yep," Emolga agreed. "Anyway, so Iris said that she wanted to see them practice, to learn more about elegance, and Moira evaluated how good our outfits were."

"Which mostly meant my outfit, really," Iris contributed. "Because the other outfits were illusions."

"I think I sold the snow-lady look quite well, despite the illusion," Froslass said, doing a twirl. Since she'd cancelled her ghostly deception some minutes ago, that just meant she did a slower version of Rapid Spin.

"She told me mine was old fashioned," Lokoko sighed. "And, well, it was a design from hundreds of years ago, but they were saying elegance was like a physical law and you'd think that that kind of thing wouldn't change over time."

"Then they checked that everyone was female," Iris went on. "I did get a bit worried when Suicune was asked to go into the next room, but she came back out in a few minutes-"

"You had Suicune out?" Cilan interrupted. "How didn't they notice that was strange?"

"To be fair, they didn't notice Raikou or Cresselia were strange either," Latias squeaked. "Maybe it was the bows they were wearing? I think we've established that they weren't great at seeing through disguises."

She put a claw on her chin. "Unless they were really good and pretending they couldn't?"

"Now I'm going to be paranoid about that, thanks," Iris grumbled.

"I think maybe it was that second option," Suicune said, having been mostly looking contemplative for the whole discussion so far. "I was asked quietly by one of the workers there about if I needed help with how I was identifying, I shook my head, and there was no more said about it."

"I… am starting to think we overthought this," Zacian decided. "Maybe we could have got Pikachu in if he was wearing a little yellow paper heart cutout to reshape his tail."

"I was thinking of doing that until Ash reminded me how many female Pokémon he has," Iris replied.

"It would be wrong to do so!" Reshiram announced.

"Oh, none of this stuff about it being true and not true again," Zekrom complained.

"No, I mean, it'd be wrong to do so because you'd be taking advantage of someone accepting people's True selves for a non-True gain," Reshiram said. "Or, in your terms, it'd be taking advantage of their Idealism."

Zekrom raised a claw and opened his mouth, frowned, closed his mouth again and started thinking hard. "Hmm."

"Then they taught us what they said were the rules of being an elegant performer," Archeops piped up. "It was, um, you always need to dress elegantly, and you have to say ette at the end of a Pokémon's name, which I can only imagine being confusing for a Floette."

"Then they got us to stand in front of a mirror with our eyes closed," Rayquaza said. "And say that we were elegant. I'm not sure what that was supposed to prove."

"She said something about how it was meant to make us always aware of our audience?" Lokoko asked. "That's something any illusionist knows, though."

"Then there was walking with style and grace, and the Pokémon had to walk over a balance beam over a muddy pool," Iris continued. "That was something to do with how grace was difficult because one wrong turn and you might as well have been thrown into filthy water."

"Which actually got me quite annoyed," Snivy huffed. "So I pushed Suicune in."

"That was you?" Suicune asked. "I just felt a sudden yank! I didn't know who or what did it!"

"It proved the point much better than I could have done," Snivy replied. "A simple application of tides, yes? And it cleaned the water up quite nicely."

"Anyway, um, long story short, we got a job offer and I panicked," Iris concluded.

N raised a hoof, uncertainly. "So, what's the lesson here? Is there a lesson here?"

Ash frowned.

"Try not to care about what people say if they're saying ridiculous things?" he suggested.

"I think I've got a better one," Zapdos said. "Let's have mochi for dessert. That's not a lesson but it's a better suggestion than any I've heard so far."

AN:

Sometimes, you just sort of lose track of what the point was in the first place.